Merlin's path
by MilitaryMaid
Summary: Ancient fairies known as personal friends, old rivalries that remain to this day, wars with no end, dragons with powers to destroy continents. All of this with humans in the middle of it hoping to live.
1. Recruitment

It had been a rough year, but after the fiasco involving the Potters and the time turners there was a need for a new defense against the dark arts teacher. Dark wizards were still around and Hogwarts has became a joke on that particular subject, they needed to hire someone who couldn't let those kind of things pass. Someone like Hermione or Harry though they were much needed in the government. There was a long list McGonagall looked at, all of them great wizards in their own regard, though none of them were enough, though she remembered someone she knew in her youth.

McGonagall was friends with her, a Ravenclaw graduate, a scholar in eastern magic and well known to be an advocate for the vampire community. Patchouli Knowledge, she had been living in a natural reserve for magical creatures in Japan, such a high concentration of magic beings would attract fairies and of course other magical creatures. It was almost entirely living in a different universe. She was living there along with two vampires he had befriended years ago. It was also known to host wanted criminals and the largest goblin-only city in the world. Things like that would be illegal anywhere but there, even muggles knew about magic, though no government applied there.

There were a few other places like that, though the one in Japan was the largest. Patchouli was a great witch, amazing at potions and knew almost every spell invented in the last 200 years. Though her main talent was the ease she befriended dangerous creatures with. The Scarlets were known to be fearsome, but Patchouli talked to them normally, even lived with them.

Though she never accepted the job, after getting the job offer she answered with a different option.

Dear Minerva

The times of rivalry had ended long ago and I am glad to hear you talking to me as a friend. I do consider your offer flattering to my own self, Hogwarts is an institution I loved being a part of, though I doubt I would do a better job than the teacher preceding me.

My health is known to be poor and my patience is low, teaching kids would just be torture of them and me alike. Moreover I doubt I am the best qualified person to do such a task, even if I went there I wouldn't feel safe if I knew there was someone better than me at it. I would consider it an insult to Hogwarts to not consider the best for the role of teacher. So I propose someone else, someone I know can and will make sure those young wizards learn how to fight back.

Kirisame Marisa, she graduated from Mahoutokoro with the highest scores in history. You may remember her by the nickname in the Toyohashi Tengu she received when playing quidditch "The Blazing Star". Yes she broke the arm of your beater by deflecting a ball with her broom, also begun the tradition of burning brooms when losing a match.

She has a history of stealing books I own and never returning them, among other things. Though I am mentioning this to you to realize she isn't a perfect witch, that she will not fight you over the most silly things. She will get in late, get drunk in the most inconvenient times, steal things from your office, leave magical creatures roaming around the castle. She is unstable, eccentric, flamboyant though more than any of those things she is the best witch I know.

Mahoutokoro was nothing but a dream she had in her early childhood, becoming a witch, learning magic. Teaching knights how to beat dragons with magic swords and trick gods into letting their enemies live. She actually had to escape her old home in order to go there, her father is a muggle who has always feared the life of a professional witch. He feared one day she would get in trouble with a monster and die the same way her mother had done before. Some magical creatures are sentient and smart enough to kill any wizard, her father's fears were well founded.

Marisa had such a wish to go to Mahoutokoro that she fled home and walked into Aokigahara. She would either go to school or die trying, more than a escape it was suicide. There she met Rinnosuke Morichika, who allowed her to live in his shop as long as she learned proper magic. His influence was the reason she never dropped out of school even though it bored her to no end. She often fell asleep on classes waking up only to correctly answer questions the teachers asked her. Did her senior's homework for cash, and often challenged her classmates to duel, she even fought her transmutation teacher… Twice. The first time she was a student the second her teacher was the one who challenged Marisa, in all fairness she was no longer a student when this happened. Both times she won with overwhelming strength.

Since Mahoutokoro was boring to her she sought to study magic from… other sources. She learned most from a poltergeist named Mima, I have no idea who Mima was when alive but it appears she is really good at spell casting still being dangerous to this day. She can learn spells by looking at them regardless of difficulty, has developed a charm to protect herself from the Imperius curse. Really I cannot use words to make myself clearer, she is only comparable to Dumbledore himself in skill, power and eccentricity.

Best regards

Patchouli Knowledge

Minerva thought for a moment, this sounded too good to be true, though she knew the Mahoutokoro Transmutation teacher, they were old friends meeting many times in congresses. Sometimes it took months for her to answer but she always did.

Dear Futatsuiwa

I hope you are doing well, it has been a long time since I had written to you. Though there is an issue. As you know Hogwarts has experienced another problem regarding dark wizards and time turners for some reason now. We are in urgent need of a defense against the dark arts teacher since the previous one admits that he is unfit for the job. We are no longer competitive in the field.

I inquired Patchouli Knowledge about her joining our body of professors to which she denied the request putting both her health and in her perspective, personal inadequacy as reasons. Though she replied recommending me another witch that reminds me way too much about Dumbledore. So much so that I fear this is a joke of hers, even down to the occasional arson, explosions and flamboyance in which they carry themselves.

She even mentioned that girl, Kirisame, challenged you to a duel when still a student. I have a really hard time believing a little girl could fight you.

Sorry for making this such a short letter though I am worried. Please let me know as soon as you can.

Thanks

Minerva McGonagall

The answer came in three days later, unexpectedly fast.

Hi Minerva!

Oh it has been such a wild last decade, I moved out of Sado and went to the Yatsugatake Mountains to Gensokyo to live with an old friend. Expect more letters having odd stories about my last few years, I expect the same from you Minerva, if you may like of course.

I have no idea what Patchouli told you, but believe me all those stories about Marisa Kirisame are true. She really fought Okazaki Yumemi at age 15 and won, she literally went to hell and back to fight a flock of demons, she has fought both Remilia and Flandre and has won every time, she has faced two rulers of the underworld and won, she has ridden dragons, she really has challenged me to a duel, not twice but around ten times and won most of those fights. She really can learn any spell she looks at and replicate any potion she reads about. She can fly with or without her broom with enough skill to dodge rain. Hell I have no idea what else to say! Of course some of those things, she did with help, though I am quite sure she could do most of them alone.

She has never taken all the credit for herself, and she has never turned her back on those who need help. Of course she is like a child who has never grown up, but if Dumbledore was Mozart she is Beethoven.

Though I think there is a problem if you hire her. Convincing her is going to be an issue, first she knows the value of her services. The Japanese ministry pays her large amounts of cash to do things their aurors cannot, for example that time Flandre Scarlet escaped to Tokyo. This issue is not as big since she won't care about money if you make the job seem interesting enough, that is the second issue.

She won't sit at a desk and teach kids magic she considers boring. She won't file reports or grade students on an arbitrary scale you impose on her. That is the main reason she doesn't teach in Mahoutokoro. She needs total freedom, or she will find a way to make her own fun.

Hire her Minerva, if Patchouli did not say it I will, she is the best witch that has ever been born. Believe me I had been in this world for long enough.

Kisses!

Futatsuiwa Mamizou

Minerva knew who to write next then. Really she had no other option now that it was put clearly to her. She knew that odd teaching style way too well, she has seen it work on even the worst students. She laughed to herself "It would not surprise me if she were in love with a wanted dark witch" not knowing how accurate her statement was.

To Kirisame Marisa

From the Headmistress of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

As you may know already we pride ourselves from being the best, or at least we try our best to be since this is the oldest school. It has come to our attention that we had been lacking a proper professor of Defense against the dark arts. It is not from lack of capable wizards here in Britain but from such high expectations along with the troublesome nature of some dark wizards we had encountered.

We asked an acquaintance of yours Patchouli Knowledge to join our body of professors to which she denied the request mentioning you would be a much better fit for the position. We would gladly discuss the possibility of hiring you as a teacher and would like you to begin as soon as the holidays end.

We hope to hear from you

Direction of Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry.

Minerva McGonagall

Marisa replied a day later, the paper smelled of lavender and gunpowder.

Miss McGonagall

Yo! Really I had heard of your school but I am not the type to trust fame since it has failed my expectations many times. I imagine you had gone through the same, something that seems great at first turns out it isn't, of course the same could apply to the way you see me. I asked Patchouli and she hyped me up so much I really imagine she described someone else. Though she hyped up your school as high, but according to Alice this school is about as good as Mahoutokoro or her alma mater Dumnstrag (Am I spelling it correctly?).

So I went to ask Mima instead, Alice always likes to shit on the Brits for some reason. Mima said Kourin went there so I got to ask him. He said it was an old school but he didn't learn as much as he wanted, though he said the same of Mahoutokoro when I was young. Sorry for dragging this for so long but really nobody could give me a straight or trustful answer. Everyone was telling me different things. So I went to ask Yuuka, she is British and considers everyone equally weak, that is about as trustworthy I could get, if she said you all were less than average wizards then it means it is good, amazing even. She said Mahoutokoro was "A school for retarded wizards who could never understand a spell on their own".

Surprisingly enough she said "Wait those guys are still alive?! You know their castle is Morrigan's old dwelling? No wait it's Letty's. I do not know whose cock they had to suck to have the protective spells removed so they wouldn't disintegrate in hours. Well it was Morrigan we are talking about for sure she had paper thin curses because she was never good at that, necromancy was her strength. Hah probably they would not even dare to come into Mugenkan" Then "How good they are? No idea Marisa, Kourin went there and he repairs my umbrella. No wait wait wait! I remember now some guy named Argus served my father a few years ago, he said the guy wasn't such a disappointment" I literally had to write that down, really it is the best critique she has given to… anything! So yes I would very gladly teach in your school and meet those high expectations you have.

Please send me a plane ticket because there is no way I am teleporting half the planet

Kirisame Marisa


	2. 2 The name before the name

Marisa walked into the classroom right on time, her black dress just washed, her hair perfumed and conditioned. She even trimmed her nails and ironed her apron, really she expended most of the night doing that. She looked at the kids, young, naive and impressed to see a Japanese blonde teaching them. Fifth grade defense against the dark arts, so it was expected for them to already know a few things. Moreover this group was the generation that caused the whole ordeal with the time turners.

McGonagall even briefed about who was who, she glanced over realizing she had no idea but that a few of them almost revived a dark wizard. She sat in her chair, her books falling from the desk, Marisa blushed though she continued.

"So… Know what? I will tell you something, there are many different types of threats. Those who will just annoy you even if you do nothing, those who can hurt you if you do nothing, those who will hurt you but you can defend from it, those who will hurt you but you can get by if you know what to do, those who will hurt you regardless, and those that will kill you because even if you learn everything they can and will defeat you. But human history is full of people who organized and did something against the worst threats, so I tell you let's make history! Now you! McGonagall said you were smart tell me what is the worst type of threat you can find!"

Scorpius, nervous as ever looked around, he cleared his throat "Uhm? Basilis… Human itself I would say"

Marisa thought for a moment "Good answer, very philosophical but not a correct one. You know the legend of this castle? I looked it up last week. So you see" she begun picking up her books and opened one "Hogwarts was founded around the time of the Wizard King Bladud who commissioned the four best wizards he knew to make a school of magic. But before that" she opened a different book "There was the problem of finding a proper place, remember the X century was still a time of war so the school had to be built in a really secure location. So instead of building a castle what they did was take one already built"

She showed the book to the class for them to pass around, fairy mounds, the book was quite old, written in parchment with a copper cover, though there was a picture of Hogwarts in the front of the chapter. The interesting part is that it didn't call Hogwarts well… Hogwarts, it had an entirely different name Cailleach Sidhe. The book was in Latin so they understood bits of it.

"The dwelling place of the queen of winter. You know why they chose this place exactly? Why not other fairy mounds, there are many with way better defenses" she pointed at Albus "Tell me dear please"

He cleared his throat "B-because…" Marisa smiled

"So if you needed a room, but you had to pick between mine and Scorpius which one would you choose? No wait bad example he is your friend… Between mine and the chamber of secrets!"

Albus shivered "The chamber of secrets… You are scaring me already" everyone laughed.

Marisa laughed "Well you got the idea! Bheara was waaaaaaaay less scary than other Aos Si. Still it was not an easy thing to move a fairy lord outside of her dwelling, that is my point! Fighting a fairy seems impossible even by today's standards, they are things so powerful nature seems to be their doing. Don't you think the founders were scared?! A crazy king just made them go and fight a fairy! And they did, and they won! This is where we are standing, and here is my lesson, even those threats that seem impossible can be defeated if you have a good plan, if you have skill and if you have a team. Never forget that! Now we will begin with the real thing, the worst threat you will possibly find ever is human itself."

The next group came in shaking, they saw how the last group went out pale, one of them running to the bathroom to vomit, their hair messed up panting, sweating. She had gone through the unforgivable curses, and workarounds in them. The class was gruesome, historical mentions of great dark wizards who used the curses for evil and the way they backfired to them.

The first year was no different, she talked about vampires what they could do and the power of a true vampire. Next class she talked about dragons and for the oldest students she talked of fairies and spells to be used on them. Half the class ended up in the infirmary.

McGonagall was appalled, she called Marisa to her office. The witch came in writing in a notebook. She was examining the office. McGonagall cleared her throat "What was that?! There is no need for the fourth years to know about the existence of the Aos Si also why you then changed the subject to the curses and ways to modify them?! Most of the seventh grade is in the infirmary with burn wounds, one went blind!"

"You know why I changed the subject, the curses are still allowed to be used when fighting a fairy"

"Why would they fight fairies?!"

"Why wouldn't they? I ended up facing many and I fear them as much as the next gal"

"But the lasers? What was that supposed to be? Thank heavens they could be healed!"

"I expected them to be skilled, you said this school was the best! How can I teach them sparks when they can't handle the non directional laser?!"

"The non directional laser is advanced magic, only Patchouli knew it for a reason. What are sparks I am sure it is way more dangerous!"

"It is…"

"I forbid you to teach that!"

"So I can't teach them how to use love as a weapon?"

McGonagall's eyes opened wide "Y-you can do that? Y-you want to teach them that?!"

"Yes, I heard Voldemort was killed with love magic. Probably if your students had known how to fire a spark he would have died way sooner"

"..."

Marisa walked around the desk "I know it is dangerous, but I stopped as soon as I saw what was their limit. You gotta believe me! The main reason kids are stupid is because we assume they are stupid. If at least one of them pulls it off I will consider it a success! I do not plan to teach them the Master Spark, just a simple Light Spark. You gotta believe me, once you get the hang of it the spell is easy. Fairy magic works that way. Minerva let me do this"

She turned to Marisa, her eyes were full of fire, those yellow eyes reminded her of the green eyes of Dumbledore. Both full of an inner madness that came out at times to scare the entire world. "You are just like him… He talked about fairies too when he begun teaching classes. Then tried to teach the advanced years the Patronus spell. Nobody believed he could pull it off, but he did, and it became the main weapon of the Aurors and the order of the phoenix against you-know-who"

"Who?"

"The dark lord"

"Kali? She was sealed by Hakurei Sayuri, I do not follow you"

"No I mean Voldemort! Lady you are doing this on purpose?"

"Sorry I was born in the other half of the planet, I am sure he was the dark lord for you but he barely made an impact in Japan. Kali wanted to eat all the population in the east"

"I apologize Miss Kirisame, that demon sounds really dangerous. I give you permission to teach them whatever you want, but do not let them get hurt. Parents will get their children out if you keep at it"

"Oh I have an idea if you can learn Master Spark the kids can learn a nomal spark!"

"I would consider that to be a good idea but I have many things to do"

Marisa dove one finger into McGonagall's hair and pulled a strand, she squirmed and pushed Marisa away "What was that for?!"

"Oho I was right! You are a cat!"

"I am not what has gotten into you? Trying to change the subject from your crazy schemes?"

Marisa laid down on her boss' desk and smirked "I know it is true, I can pour oil onto the base of your tail and you will remain a cat for days"

McGonagall pulled away pushing her own body against the wall "Do not even dare! You come here and threaten me?"

"Ha you admitted it! I was really not sure but that oil part really scares you people"

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"Why would I? Really that explains why your transmutation skills are so good! You should teach me to transform sometime later"

"Get out of my office Kirisame, the meeting is over"


	3. Fairy trap

Rud hud Hudibras the ninth king of the House of Brutus the founding king of Britain, war had forced to send his son far away, a nation in war required a future king who studied and so he sent his kid Bladud to Athens. Though there he was imprisoned for witchcraft since he cured the leprous with his bare hands.

From Athens he fled to to northern Africa ending up in Morocco, knowledge was still his main goal and around twenty years ago a school for high education was opened, there they taught religious text and of course; magic. Bladud studied there for seven years amassing most of his knowledge on magic though he also learned philosophy and medicine. After the seven years he was found out to not being a muslim but a pagan instead, so he was cursed with leprosy, then expelled from the school.

Outside he had nowhere to go but Britain, but there he was exiled from his father's dominions too, there he ended up caring for pigs being his main source of income. Though he realized his pigs were immune to his own disease, they actually bathed in warm mud. He did as them realizing the springs had magical properties. So he founded a city in there to make sure others knew of the magical properties of the spring, now cured he went back to his father and succeeded him after he passed away.

Bladud as a king found great use of magic and encouraged it to those members of his court that could do it so as well. Though he realized some had far better skill and experience than others, mainly those who came of old families of wizards knew more. Those who were born from non-magic families knew nothing.

The university of Al-Karaouine never really taught magic as a main subject, it was just one class among many religion being its main focus. This gave him an idea, what if Britain built a school exclusively for magic. Bladud thought of a school were wizards went at a young age, so that when they reached adulthood they had as many opportunities as he did.

He called the four best wizards in his court, Grodric Griffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin and explained his idea to them. It was something he considered a king should not even put his hands into, since the school could easily be corrupted to become training grounds for a magical army. Bladud instead wanted them to do it independently, and he as king would only give them as much land and resources as they needed.

They were baffled of the idea of a school exclusive for magic, before that teaching your own magic to others was considered betrayal of your own family. Though if all the knowledge was shared this idea would slowly fade away new spells would be born. There was a main problem, if they four began building a school the people of Gaul and the saxons would consider this an act of war, Britain would be raising an army of wizards, unstoppable people with the power of controlling reality with just a stick.

Any castle would not do, it had to be the safest castle known to them. Salazar was the one who had the idea of using a Sidhe to build the school, a fairy castle, he said it to his friend Godric who was the only man brave enough, or insane enough, to think such a thing was possible.

In Ireland there is a forest in which center there is a mound known to everyone, though it was known because the fairy living there had no need to hide. The Dagda, the most powerful fairy to ever live, the moment Godric thought of invading his mound he sent heralds, small pixies who warned the quartet of the danger they would put themselves in. It wasn't even known to Rowena and Helga yet, they found out from the Pixies.

Rowena advised Godric not to even dare go to Ireland, there were two mounds only for a reason. The Tuatha de Danann lived there. Dagda who inhabited his own mound in a forest, the forest is even part of said mound, then a large stone castle underground. His daughter was even more ostentatious with the use of her magic her mound begun with a flower field, then inside a cafe there is a lake of blood guarded by a Vampire and in the end a wooden castle with protective spells so strong anyone who came in them would disintegrate after a few hours even with the strongest protections. Dagda was stronger than his daughter Brigid but she found a way to weaponize love which is the source of such harsh protective spells and her own personal weapon, the Master Spark. Said to be the same spark that created life on earth, as a mother of nature the love she holds for all nature for all her creations, her children gives her power which makes her comparable to the father.

Ogma and Nuada are not as strong or skilled but they make up for it in battle skill and coordination. If Nuada is hurt Ogma is known to become stronger than before. They inhabit in a mound of their own inside Brigid's mound. Rowena knew all this, she had studied the fairies hoping to learn their magic and she knew Ireland was a fruitless effort, a suicide even.

Helga knew of a castle in Scotland where weary travelers often prayed to find though only few lived to see and seek refuge on it. The inside was said to be colder than the outside, colder than anything they had ever felt before or imagined could be felt, though they became immune to it when its host allowed you to stay, even for a minute, and that blessing remained with those people until the end of their lives. Queen Beira Leticia Whiterock, a much less violent queen who ruled over winter.

After the battle of the four wizards and the Ice Queen they were left with the task of lifting most of the protective spells that killed invaders from the inside. Though some defenses already set by Beira they kept and are still up to this day.

The fact that a fairy was moved from her place greatly displeased the Tuatha de Danann, Brigid being the quickest to anger of her family went right away not to the school, really she could not care less for the school itself or the wizards who took it. In her eyes it belonged to them now, but it was the orders of a king who caused this entire debacle to happen. She arrived at Bladud's castle in Bath a day after Beira was defeated. Bladud greeted her with a great party, hoping to appease to her. Though she would not yield. It was enough to allow Brutus to found a kingdom in what used to be an entire fairy country.

She ignored the entire party, blew off the head of a juggler who thought she was amused using a beam of pure light. Then Brigid approached the king and spit on his feet. She had not said a word until then "Never forget this is fairy territory, you are here because we allow you to do so" she then grabbed the king by his clothes and flew out of the castle then up until everyone could see them.

She looked down at them, her green hair covering part of her face "He may be a king to you, to us he is nothing more than a human! Our territory is for the taking for anyone who can take it from our own hands. Though you will pay the price just as this fool here. Now wizard king, prove how strong you are, grow wings and fly if you can!" she began laughing before letting go of Bladud. He screamed actually managing to grow a pair of wings but they did not flap on time. He plummeted to the ground, his people looking in dismay at the fairy in the sky.

Brigid looked at them smirking "Magic or no magic, training or no training it makes no difference for us" she flew away to her own place.

King Leir succeeded his father Bladud, and his mistake with his daughters he payed painfully. Cordelia being exiled to Gaul was unable to attend to Hogwarts as her sisters and saw this as an issue, she proposed the idea of a school of magic in Gaul itself. Her husband madly in love with his wife defended the idea in his court. His wizards accepted the challenge of building a school though they would not invade a fairy mound instead they would use land as their own shield. They choose the most secluded part of the Pyrenees as the place they would build the school. Even if Cordelia could not properly study magic she wanted the same chances for other people in Gaul.

Leir came to Gaul as a beggar when Beaxbatons academy of magic was beginning to have classes, the fact that his daughter had the same dream as his own father Bladud made him realize his own error. Though the rest of the story is history, it is only worth mentioning this is the first war between two trained wizard armies, suffering heavy casualties between both. The might for both militaries is what made other nations begin to build their own schools of magic.

To bring down Hogwarts a normal army would not do, they needed just to take the school without the need to hurt anyone but such a building could host one of Cordelia's enemies. Nobody dared to attack a fairy mound, though a local deity would. Cordelia cut a deal with L'Ankou who already had a small army of her own. She was a reaper with an army of beings who sucked everything a person enjoyed, she called them Dementors since they drove humans insane.

She would attack the castle and bring down the first layer of protective spells that covered the castle in the form of a bubble. Then the army of Cordelia would site the castle to make sure nobody went in or out. Meanwhile in Ireland Dagda was quite displeased with his daughter's actions.

"You took revenge on something that did not even affect us, Beira was our enemy. Bladud could had avoided all this ordeal" his daughter was glaring at him, clearly angry but respecting his authority as head of the family

"Father humans have to understand we let them live here, Britain has always been ours"

"I let them live here, and I dislike blood being spilled without need. You will have your own country and you will then understand. Spilled blood just shows how poor a leader you can be! You will protect Cailleach Sidhe from the reaper who is approaching."

She stretched her wings and flew to Hogwarts, the army of dementors already getting close. She had made herself invisible so nobody would see her. She could see how the protective sphere covered it, she stepped on it and waited.

They came close and waited realizing there was an invisible barrier preventing their entrance. L'Ankou arrived moments later, a blonde young girl wearing a black ragged dress. Her scythe cut the barrier with little effort, then the dementors slowly approached their victims. That way nobody would even want to leave, no happiness so there would be no reason to even move.

Brigid fell the moment the barrier was broken, the moment she fell her figure became visible. Everyone around gasped in fear, their situation could not get any worse in their eyes. She held her odd-looking wand up in the air and uttered three words "Cosantóir fan le". From the wand came out a wolf green hair red eyes, the same shade as the fairy that created it, it stood there calmly, the dementors frozen looking at it unsure of what to do. L'Ankou looked at it in confusion, when she figured out what that wolf was it was already too late. An explosion of pure white light covered the entire area only hurting her army. They began to retreat in fear, she tried to fight it though the wolf irradiated too much light for her to handle.

L'Ankou's skin began to melt as she approached the fairy and the animal. She had just summoned a guardian spirit, her own guardian spirit, to put it more clearly all the light that was in her soul. Brigid stopped the spell, it had only been a few minutes but it felt like hours for L'Ankou, her body was so damaged there was barely any flesh covering it. She knelt before the fairy who stared down at her. She touched the reaper's head then both began turning to yellow petals leaving no trace of what had happened. No soldier dared to come close to the school, a fairy was protecting it and she went to such extents as to beat a god of death to keep it safe.

"Cosantóir fan le" which in Sylvan meant "I await a guardian", Sylvan is close enough to Gaelic that those students from Ireland and Scotland roughly understood the wording of the spell, though the pronunciation of Gaelic and Sylvan is tough for many to the point where it is not practical for magic so it had to be translated to Latin for easier casting. "Expecto patronum" became the standard for the spell instead of the original Sylvan wording.

L'Ankou was originally a Breton Witch who managed to become one with death which gave her power. It also allowed her to feed from fear, pain and sadness, small deaths which she could use to create familiars that she could use. Though everything she had at her disposal was nothing compared to the simplicity of Brigid's spells, after such a defeat she bowed her allegiance to Brigid, becoming her personal bodyguard.

Marisa blinked a couple of times after getting out of the vision, she looked down and shook her head. McGonagall was behind her. "That was a long one, did it work?"

Marisa coughed a little and took a breath of air "Not at all, I never got to see what you saw in the ministry this morning. It showed something old…"

"Sometimes it does that, a pensieve tends to have a mind of its own and shows you what you need to see not what you want. More with one containing so many memories"

"Hogwarts had a different name half of the story" Marisa walked out feeling dizzy, she bent over towards a trashcan, her mouth felt the stench of acid and digested food. After finishing she fell to the ground beginning to spasm. She never saw how Minerva raced towards her trying to hold her head to protect it. Marisa was alone, alone in an endless white desert, the icy wind hurting her skin. She reached in her pocket though she found nothing there.

She begun rubbing her hands together until a small red spark showed, she separated her hands bringing the fire on her hands close to her own body. Marisa was known to be always armed to the teeth, two wands and her hakkero along with homemade explosive mushroom devices and different potions. Though this was not the first time she had to use magic with her bare hands, it was harder but not impossible.

No storm hit the area, just a freezing cold low wind, she turned around and saw nothing there either. She closed her eyes and let herself fall, nothing, the icy sensation went away, the illusion only worked as long as she acknowledged its existence. She opened her eyes again seeing nothing but a void, at least she would not freeze anymore.

A gap opened right before her, Ran came out of it looking around. She handed Marisa a lighter then left. Marisa looked at the device, small thin and silver, she opened it and a flash of light coming from it flew out of the lighter and filled the place in an explosion. It suddenly took a shape. She was inside a stone room in Hogwarts, in front of her a painting of a lady with white skin, her blue hair made her seem out of this world. Her eyes full of pride looking down on the viewer of the painting.

Besides the painting there was a window, she walked up to it realizing it was day again, outside many people flying in brooms, on ground students and teachers alike yelling her name. She looked at the painting again. It stood up from its own chair and began to laugh.

It spoke in a tongue akin to both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, in fact the language that served as basis for them. Sylvan, fairy speech, Marisa herself knew little enough to read it, though listening to it was entirely different. Marisa patted herself realizing the only thing she had was the odd lighter. The painting signed Marisa to sit on the ground, she did not.

"You will get tired in here little one" Marisa looked around, no doors only that one window. This was a trap room though why nobody had reached it before. Why was it still around? No bones were to show the presence of some old fool.

Marisa responded in Japanese "Cut the games Letty, I will find a way to get out and when I do I will personally find your home and beat you to a pulp"

She tilted her head, and began speaking slower "Whatever you say, you won't get out"

Marisa responded in Sylvan this time "You are the weakest of your kind. Real Letty is not scary, fake painting can die"

Letty shrugged and sat down "I will just watch you die here"

Marisa winked, she pressed her back against the wall and aimed her hands at the painting. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Master..." the painting screamed out. It creaked and the stone began moving out.

"D-do not fire! You can get out, I am sorry Brigid you can leave!"

Marisa shrugged and closed her palm, there was already some light generating on it. "Why door?"

"In case I trapped a fairy in disguise… I am so sorry Princess, your disguise is good"

Marisa looked at herself "Not a disguise, this is me"

Letty shook her head "As if a human could cast Máistreacht Spréach"

"Yeah because nobody can pronounce it" She that one last bit in English, then walked out of the room, it closed behind her. She was in a hallway right besides the main dinner, a group of students found her and dragged her back to the infirmary.

She had disappeared the last night, McGonagall had brought her after she had a seizure then disappeared when they lost sight of her leaving behind only two wands and a bagua. She told McGonagall about what had happened, using the lighter as proof of it. It was different from the one Ron Wesley had inherited from Dumbledore, the headmistress knew about it though, it was the prototype for the one Ron had. It had been missing for quite a long time, Marisa let it go only after McGonagall let her borrow the blueprint for the delighter.

The trap had activated when Marisa saw a memory containing a fairy, the memory itself on the pensieve was a trap the founders had never found, one that only activated when it found someone that could be considered a danger. Marisa herself had memories of fighting, and winning against Letty, after the memory ended Marisa had her mind contaminated with a spell that would transport her inside a pocket universe of Letty's making.

Other fairy mazes would have several layers onto them though Letty had the power to only make two, the icy desert which could be easily ignored, then the void which wasn't easy to get away from. The room was just a safeguard in case a human managed to escape the maze, in case it was a fairy that was trapped the painting would let it go. Too oddly specific to even be considered a threat, just a threat to Marisa. Though why would Dumbledore had a device that allowed him to escape fairy mazes, he had never triggered the trap, or how he found a new exit. Also why the memory was of after she had lost the castle?

Marisa would want to find those answers, usually she was the curious type but the seizure wasn't something she would want to test again.


	4. The dragon king

Marisa gasped for air after getting out of the last memory, the pensieve did not malfunction this time on her. McGonagall was impressed Marisa wanted to look at it the very next day, she tried to advice her against it but there was no stopping her. The memory was clear, a few dark wizards had gone to the sea on Delphini's command once they got out of prison.

There was evidence of dark magic happening though they could find no trace of their action, just an old book in an unspeakable language and a few vials with several fluids, some of them human others unidentifiable. Marisa recognized a few of them, ammonia, sulphur and uranium ore.

"So what do you think? Really you are the last person I ask, nobody knows what they did. We had to let them go since the time the ministry could hold them has ended"

Marisa served herself some tea, she ate a cookie and drank from the cup she finished the cookie, McGonagall was growing impatient. She coughed, Marisa offered her honey candy from her pocket. She looked puzzled at Marisa's demeanor, she was acting as if nothing was happening.

"So I guess it was nothing important?"

Marisa kept eating, she waited until her cookie was down "Quite the contrary, it is an unsealing ritual, you guys interrupted it then let them go, they are in their way to the Pacific as we speak I am sure"

"Why are you so calm?"

Marisa shrugged "If you knew the world was going to end, what would you do? If there is a way out we can think of then we can move, right now is the time to think, think and enjoy what little time we have left"

McGonagall slapped Marisa "How can you disregard the world so lightly?! How are you so sure what they plan to release will destroy everything?"

"I have seen him Minerva, what they plan to release. You fear to say Voldemort's name, even after he is dead, though I fear him, I fear his name and I fear even thinking of him. His sight can drive you insane, he sleeps while his mind wanders in the dream world. I knew it was a dream but it didn't make it any less real, I knew I had survived because it was a dream, because I am already mad"

Marisa sighed "They must be summoning it as we speak… So there is nothing we can do, he will be awakened, even the Master Spark, my Master Spark won't hurt him in the least. I could throw a missile at him but that wouldn't do a thing ei…"

McGonagall had no idea how to react to that discourse, she had no information on what was going to be awakened. Though marisa was really afraid, until she mentioned a missile, why would a muggle weapon hurt something so dangerous?

"We could actually have something be right back!" Marisa jumped from the window, beginning to fall, the forests before her, the leafs singing against the wind, to anyone it would be a quiet time, though nature itself knew what was happening. The wind against the trees speaking an ancient language that screamed against the world for help. Brigid Brigid Brigid, chants of apology filled the air. Then the hiss of her broom, Marisa grabbed it and felt the wind against her face, she closed her eyes until she grabbed a pair of goggles from her bag and put them on.

In Mugenkan Yuuka felt an earthquake, her teacup fell to the ground and broke. She sighed and snapped her fingers, the cup returned to the table. She grabbed the cup and began walking on the large halls of the mansion, the walls carved with rich details of flowers, models in clay and stone covered in copper armor, a dog so large his head was on the same level as Yuuka's ran towards her, she stroked its head and hugged its snout.

They both walked to the door, Elly and Kurumi ran past them, fear filling their eyes. With a blink the door opened, tentacles began to crawl into the mansion, the wolf stopped them with a burst of light, they crawled around avoiding the light.

"You are not welcome here" she said in her own tongue, the tentacles retracted as if the words caused pain, it slowly crawled away, Yuuka walked out the door closing behind her. Outside a massive being was slowly sinking into the lake of blood, the scene ended without much problem. The mansion was mildly damaged though it was clear it was fixing itself.

There was another small earthquake, though it did not come from the dream world from which the old entity had been ripped from. This was the human world, Yuuka felt the briny smell of algae and fish, it was far away but an explosion had taken place, then the odor of ozone, then vaporized rock. Oh yes this was a nuclear warhead, a smell Yuuka had felt before. Something interesting was about to happen. Her wolf remained in the door of Mugenkan and returned in, instead she flew to the outside.

Marisa squinted and saw the red clothing of Yuuka, of course she would know when he would awake, after all she controlled the border world between dream and reality. Cthulhu rose from the seas, Marisa avoided its sight, his shape being describable only by those who were familiar with topology. A giant multidimensional squid, the skies darkened when it awakened, the seas began to roar, the earthquakes would come soon.

Cthulhu, the ancient horror had no idea of human weapons, it knew humans would have new weapons when he awoke but they would have no effect, that was true. Though he felt a tug from below, he turned down and roared, though whatever was pulling was already mad. The water began to glow blue and boil, a blast pushed the ancient one away. This was different, a different blue painted the waters of the sea, the stench of blood filled the area, then the entire environment turned darker.

The second blue blast cleared the entire area, the smell of charred flesh and blood filled the area, Cthulhu was already regenerating but it had never felt so much pain, let alone be hurt. It squinted and looked at what was attacking him. His darkness repelled by the light of the creature, larger than itself, like one of those ancient creatures that roamed the earth two legs two arms and a large tail with three rows of plates on its back that acted as heat exchangers.

Gojira, the king of the monsters, god incarnate. Marisa had awakened him using a nuclear warhead, something no government or person would do in their right mind. However it was working. The entire world closed around them, the seas dried. Cthulhu's shape changed to be more akin to walk on land, Gojira no longer had speed at its advantage. When the ancient one hit the dragon he was bitten, one of its tentacles ripped off with a bite. Its body began to heat up. Marisa backed away feeling the heat herself. Cthulhu felt how its skin burned with the heat, it tried to attack Gojira again, latching its tentacles to Gojira's face.

Its head was blown off by the atomic breath, the body of the ancient lord of madness and chaos fell to the ground squirming. Gojira looked around confused by the landscape, though it was slowly returning to its original state, the seas were rising, the skies began to clear. Once the king of dragons was covered by water it swam to its own dwelling to return to sleep.

Yuuka clapped in the distance, Marisa could not see this action, though it was directed at Marisa. She had just kept her species alive for more time. She went back to her own mansion. A small baby squid latched onto her leg before she reached her door, she pulled it off and looked at the eyes, it was crying. Yuuka chuckled and tossed it to the lake of blood. It swam for a few moments before swimming away towards the dream world.

Marisa laughed and clapped, then she decided to fly back to Britain. Though she was intercepted by the time she was flying over Moscow and shipped to Japan instead. There both British and Japanese prime ministers were waiting. Marisa was bound and muzzled.

Granger looked at the witch before her "Why is she tied up? We only needed information this cannot even go public!"

Potter the leader of the aurors that captured Marisa responded, his posture and demeanor showed great care in his actions, Marisa was looking for an opening though she never found one on him. "Oh we plan on releasing her eventually, though bringing her here was extremely difficult even after disarming her. She also was armed to the teeth, we found two wands, a magical generator, seven incendiary bombs, three flash grenades made out of wood, four vials of something we do not want to test and a grimoire"

Miyamoto the blonde Japanese prime minister examined Marisa "She was traveling light, our own men had caught her with more. However she had a nuclear warhead in her pocket"

Granger organized a pile of papers in front of her "We agree on erasing all traces of this incident, Delphini cannot know her plan almost worked. The official story will have Harry stopping those who summoned Cthulhu"

Miyamoto smiled "Yeah and that way Kirisame can remain a secret, we will ignore the total lack of disregard of the Geneva convention, both muggle and wizard ones. A missile and Godzilla are entirely forbidden to use in battle"

Marisa rolled her eyes. Harry released her bounds, she began to move and stretched. He handed her a small bag containing her two wands and the hakkero, she asked for the bombs he shook his head. Probably it was against ministry regulations to have those things. Marisa would still fabricate more eventually.

She had her broom back after a few hours of clearing some paperwork. She was in London, though she remembered nothing of the trip. It was really the first time she was out in London, everyone was looking at her, she smiled proudly and put her broom in her shoulder beginning to walk down the street. Potter the auror who released her was waiting down the street. "I would advice you against dressing like that in the outside"

"I have nothing else to wear and you left me in the middle of a city!" She held his arm pulling him to a dark alley, they disappeared.


	5. The puppeteer

Born by unknown parents, found in a dumpster in Edinburgh in 1974, she was given the name Alice because it was the name of the social worker who filled her paperwork. She was given the surname Wilson.

She was a social kid with extremely good luck, though she had a hard time talking to adults, at times she said things that would scare them. Her dreams were of dark times, atomic blasts on the cities, a snake lord ruling over the world. Also those who mistreated her often ended in accidents unrelated to Alice.

Her behavior came to the attention of the English parliament, the prime minister had learned about the existence of wizards, and there alone in the world, laid an unregistered witch. It was information only available to herself and a few people she had to pick. There had to be one without registration, she had a list of orphans with those particular traits, of all only a few were not adopted, and of them only one did not get a letter at age 11, she was never admitted into Hogwarts.

She asked for that particular child to be brought to her office. Alice did not know what was happening, though she never showed joy from the fake family coming to pick her up. She could sense something was off.

The prime minister was different from what she imagined, for starters she imagined it would be a man. "You want me for something, but I only see war"

The woman in front of her stood up and crouched in front of Alice "You can see the future? I will not force you to do anything"

Alice smiled briefly "That is good to know, then it means the war will be something I willingly get into"

"I will be brief Alice, you are a witch, and the Ministry of Magic has no idea you exist" She smiled proudly "I know you can appear and disappear at will, move things with your mind, read minds, see the future and control others. Well eventually you could know all those things"

"Why would you want a weapon? I am just a child" Alice opened her arms interested in the offer

"The Russians, other people technically. You are special Alice and we want that"

Alice was handed a contract, it bound her to serve the British government for as long as the current prime minister served. On one side the already signed name of the prime minister, on the other there was a dotted line. Alice began to write down her name, though she stopped halfway, she knew documents were void if the signature was wrong, so she wrote down the surname she came up with first, she would "let Margaret have her way" she thought to herself and wrote down the surname with that meaning, Murgatroyd. Without knowing that surname would become her own once her paperwork changed to adopted status.

She stood only one day within the British government, she was then moved to a different location. Mi6 the only place the Ministry of Magic had no access, and could not get access to. They had ground up Brutus' rock and used it to lay the foundations of the area. The rock itself acted as a protection making the place inaccessible through apparition, electromagnetic fields carefully placed and disguised as radio signals worked to make Alice virtually invisible.

The ongoing war against Voldemort made things even easier, the black market was full of dark books, books given to Alice to learn magic. Though it wasn't the only training she had, she was also trained in the use of weapons, though that never caught on, however the tactics could and would be applied the same on her wand use.

By the age fourteen, years after her adoption she was considered comparable to any good Mi6 field agent. She was sent to find and gathered all the information she could from Berlin, two years later the wall dividing the city was going down, once she could hold grasp of a few high officers she forced them to open the gates, they had to tear it down to not look like idiots. Alice was very proud by that achievement, she boarded a train to reach Paris.

She was in her cabin when a sound startled her, she saw three men in black robes, then she caught the glimpse of a wooden stick. She let her suitcase fall in front of her and jumped behind it, a few white streaks of light hit the suitcase. Alice disappeared behind the case before it reached the ground, before the green lights showed up. Though when that happened Alice already had appeared behind them, realizing they were there to kill her she went for the kill first, she shoot a killing curse at one of them then they realized she was there, she dropped her wand and put her hands in the air. They stopped, one of them stroke her face with his wand. "So the little girl is scared now? You will pay for what you did!"

Alice smiled "Maybe, but not today" he heard his friend aim and cast a killing curse loud and clear. She twitched her fingers again and the last man standing put his hands against his neck. Alice picked up her wand and placed it inside her pocket. The man with his hands on his neck began to cry.

He looked at the blonde teenager before him "P-please he said we had to kill you"

Alice walked back in her cabin, the bodies followed them inside the cabin as well. She had the man sit in the middle of his friends, he was unable to move, sitting with a stretched back. "Who is he? You better begin talking"

The man spat at her "I won't tell a thing! I had already been tortured!"

Alice twitched her fingers again, his own mind began to slip, he uttered the word "Lucius" way before he could stop his own mouth.

"Thank you" she bowed, he placed his hands around his own neck and snapped it.

Alice remained with the dead bodies until she reached Paris, then she left. In the airport another man wearing dark robes was waiting for her. He greeted her with a quick bow to which she replied, a man with blonde long hair.

She recognized the face, a prominent member of the ministry of magic, though this person had just tried to murder her, she had never been traced, though probably the use of spells made her detectable.

"You take us for idiots? Of every spell we keep an eye for the unforgivable ones the most"

Alice had no idea what those things were, she was never instructed in magical law. Though probably a few spells she used were considered "unforgivable" probably murder and torture, the third one she didn't know.

"Lucius? What do you think will happen if you capture a witch with a recorded confession of an assassination plan you had?" She pulled out a small cassette recorder and re-winded it. Then played the confession of the last man who died.

He showed fear for a moment then calmed "M-my plan was never to capture you. We need better men than what we have now"

Alice would walk past him but she had the sensation he would stab her in the back as soon as he could. Her fingers began to move inside her pocket, his body stiffened for a moment then calmed. He was showing discomfort though he wasn't trying to show it. It took a few moments but in the end he slapped himself, then held his own wand out and broke it in half. "H-how?!" he said while he fought.

Alice bowed down and gathered the pieces, then left. He couldn't move until very later when she was already gone. He reported the incident though he went past the fact that she murdered three people, she would put the blame on him as soon as she could to save her own skin.

Since she was already free to do as she pleased given Margaret was gone from the prime minister seat, she decided to remain in England, though she knew nobody to live by, though she knew Lucius. It wasn't hard to find him once she was discharged, he didn't was the hiding type. She posed as an unregistered witch from Albania. Anyone who would look at that paperwork would see it was a fake, but she managed to blackmail her way into getting real paperwork as an immigrant. He even provided her with a fake certificate from Durmstrang.

She opened a small doll shop in the cheapest area she could find in the wizard neighborhood, Knockturn Alley. It was a dream she had when a child, even after being through Mi6 and Berlin she just wanted to be a puppeteer, it was even the reason she became so proficient with the imperius curse practicing it so much she could cast it without the need of a wand, just have direct sight of the person she needed to control. Also if the puppet was enchanted she could use the curse on it as well, this use was not detected by the ministry which gave her the clue the triggering of their alarms was from the use on living things, she had gotten visits of the ministry from using it on rats though, since controlling pests was not considered illegal just plain insane she was just told this was not allowed in the UK. Also there came the fact that she was not old enough to perform magic with a license.

The shop was quite small though Alice kept everything clean, the dolls moved all the time and acted ask clerks which made the whole ordeal whimsical enough for kids to risk it and come into her shop. Even parents were willing to take their children there, the doors were heavily guarded by dolls in armor who floated around and turned their blades away from those who came with the intent to shop. The counter was old but kept clean and ordered, there always laid a doll half constructed along with the materials used to make them controllable. Green and yellow curtains covered the sides of the windows and there was a little cardboard theater where puppets always put on a show. Alice always had tea ready for guests. Though in the later years when rumors of the dark lord rising again her street had become too dangerous to visit, Diagon Alley was still full to the brim and usually clients asked to meet her there to buy a doll instead of the shop.

One day a man wearing rags busted from the door, he was tired and deeply hurt. He fainted upon entrance, Alice walked near the man, he was wearing a stripped jumpsuit with a mark sewn into the neck. The man stank of humidity to heavens. The dolls in the shop began to move and lifted the man up. They took him to Alice's room where she placed him on her bed. Then she went to prepare a meal leaving a few armed dolls by the bed.

A few hours later he woke up and screamed from the sight of the dolls, he rushed out of the door with burn marks on his hand, he had tried to grab one and break it without knowing it was explosive. Alice was waiting sitting on a chair reading a book. She took off her reading glasses and looked at him. "You just escaped from Azkaban didn't you? Was I supposed to not take precautions?"

He looked around realizing he was surrounded by armed dolls, so many he could barely see them all in his line of sight, he looked back seeing the room was also full of them, the few he saw when waking up was just to make sure he understood what situation she was in.

"It was the only shop not owned by someone related to the ministry by any means, everywhere else I could be spotted and handed over to the ministry, my ride is gone to the forests already" He relaxed and rested against the wall.

"Then eat something, there is soup, since I didn't know when you would wake up I already ate" she got up and walked to the table, she served a bowl of soup and placed it there, the dolls retrieved to their hiding spots. She cut a few pieces of bread and served him a glass of water. "So tell me do I have to hand you over to the ministry?"

He remained against the wall, the hot meal on the table making his stomach grumble "I am innocent! I risked my life to protect Harry he even helped me escape!"

Alice's fingers clenched, the man twisted trying to fight it, he turned into a dog though her grasp remained, he was forced onto the ground then back to a human form. "So tell me Cu Sidhe, are you really telling me the truth?"

He screamed out "Yes" gaining back his control for a moment then forced back into the floor, his mouth beginning to foam his teeth clenching while he tried to move. Alice released him.

"The ministry will come in a few hours since I forced the confession out, so I am going to tell them part of the truth, you were here, I defended myself and you fled. Now you tell me where you plan on fleeing"

He nodded "I ran to France" clearly lying, but if someone asked her she couldn't say something else, even under truth serum.

He sat by the table and ate his meal as fast as he could. Alice left a broom by the door. "It would be a shame if someone stole it" she said then sat down by her chair and continued reading. He finished then went to the door, and grabbed the broom. A few minutes later the Ministry arrived, it was Lucius again.

He glared at Alice who was sitting by her chair, she brought her in for questioning, though her story never changed. He busted into her shop and slept on her own bed, afraid of what he may do she used her dolls to protect herself but he broke them with his bare hands, then she had to use the imperius curse to make him leave. He stole her broom on his way out. Lucius knew there was more to it than that, for starters Alice had killed three of his best men a few years back, she was still in character, the meek calm shop owner who only tried to get by. They had to let her go, she was put on a civil trial and allowed to leave.

In 1998 she escaped Britain seeking asylum anywhere, she walked to a fairy mound in Germany that was directly connected to Japan for some reason, those small pocket universes seemed to be outside of the human universe. Makai, the name of the mound was so large the fairy who ruled over it called herself a god.

Alice ended up finding a home in a forest and there she reopened her doll shop. Still humans nearby did not want to buy her dolls in her shop but instead asked for delivery given that they too were afraid of the forest. She switched homes from Makai or the forest given that she was still afraid of the outside, Makai was a demon world but she knew what to expect there, also the forest itself was in another fairy mound, one that scared Alice way more than Shinki.


End file.
